New Delhi | The "self-styled, award-hungry Vishwaguru's stony silence" on Israel's actions is a betrayal of India's civilisational ethos and is simply "unconscionable", the Congress said on Monday in a scathing attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The opposition party's statement came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited support from India, countering American Vice President J D Vance's remarks that the US was its sole powerful ally.
"Mr Netanyahu is wrong. Undoubtedly, Israel is embedded in the Modani empire and Mr Narendra Modi is blindly devoted to him. But crores of Indians condemn Israel's genocide in Gaza that has not spared even children, its forcible dispossession and displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, its heavy aerial bombardments of Iran that has included targeted assassinations, and its brutal military offensive in southern Lebanon. These are all assaults on humanity itself," Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said.
"The self-styled, award-hungry Vishwaguru's stony silence on Israel's actions is a betrayal of India's civilisational ethos and values. It is simply unconscionable," Ramesh asserted.
Getting a certificate from Netanyahu is no badge of honour, especially since he himself is isolated and has evoked frustration and anger even from Mr. PM Modi's good friend in the White House himself, Ramesh said, in an apparent reference to US President Donald Trump.
Netanyahu told the Fox News Sunday Briefing earlier that Israel has the support of many other countries, including a small country called India.
"We have some other friends, like a small country called India, you know, it has 1.4 billion people and, boy, do we have tremendous support there," Netanyahu said.
Last month, Vance told a briefing at the White House that Israel should respect the US-Iran peace talks.
Asked about reports that Israeli leaders were unhappy with the US-Iran agreement and were criticising President Trump, Vance said, "If I was in the Cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world." Netanyahu said he was getting a lot of support from India on Facebook.
"You know, I have this Facebook thing, and I have overwhelming support there. I may have many others," Netanyahu said, pushing back against Vance's claim that Israel has no other allies.
In a blistering attack on the Modi government, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi last month said its "stony silence" and inaction on Israel's Gaza genocide are not just morally reprehensible but also inexplicable from a national interest perspective.
Gandhi, the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson, claimed that India has alienated itself from its historical allies in Palestine, Iran, and the larger Middle East and has distanced itself from global public opinion, while letting Pakistan swoop in to claim the space of a mediator.